Future's End

Notes

In 2373 Voyager encountered the timeship Aeon, a Federation vessel of the 29th century commanded by Captain Braxton. Braxton attempted unsuccessfully to destroy Voyager, claiming that the ship had been involved in a temporal explosion which had destroyed Earth in his time. By destroying the ship he hoped to prevent whatever incident it had been involved in which had destroyed the planet in the future. Janeway was able to stop the attempt, but in the process both the Aeon and Voyager were thrown through space and time. The Aeon crash-landed on Earth in the 1960s, whilst Voyager found itself orbiting the planet in the 1990s shortly after the Eugenics war.2

The wreckage of the Aeon had been found by Henry Starling. He had used the vessel to develop a whole raft of technology, kick-starting a massive computer revolution on Earth and making himself an extremely rich and powerful person over the following decades.2

By the 1990s Starling had decided that he needed a new generation of technology from the future to continue his plans. He had spent years refitting the timeship and planned to take it through to the 29th century to obtain new technology.2

Voyager's officers beamed down to the planet to investigate the readings of future technology which they were detecting. They located Captain Braxton, who had been living a destitute lifestyle in an attempt to minimise his impact on the timeline. He explained that it was Starling's use of the timeship to go to the future which would create the incident that destroyed Earth.2

Starling, having long been worried about the possibility of people from the future arriving to remove their technology, had been funding a Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence program run by Rain Robinson. She detected Voyager in orbit and transmitted a greeting signal; Janeway sent Lieutenant Paris and Tuvok to delete Rain's information and so preserve the ship's anonymity. Although successful, the pair were accosted by Rain outside the observatory. At that moment one of Starling's men arrived to eliminate Rain. The trio managed to escape the scene, although Rain was witness to several incidents of advanced weapons fire.2

Janeway attempted to abduct Starling, but he used the superior technology of the Aeon to defeat the attempt and disable Voyager, stealing the EMH in the process. He equipped the EMH with a mobile emitter so that it could function on Earth.2

Paris managed to convince Rain of Starling's malicious intent and enlisted her efforts in defeating him. She arranged a meeting with Starling, where one of Voyager's shuttles successfully abducted him whilst Paris and Tuvok freed the EMH. Unfortunately the shuttle was disabled in the process, crashing in North America. Tuvok and the EMH managed to recover Chakotay and Torres from some unfriendly natives. Whist Rain and Paris tracked the timeship, which appeared to be in a large surface vehicle.3

One of Starling's assistant's managed to use the Aeon to beam him away from Voyager despite force fields protecting him. Paris and Rain continued to track the vehicle whilst the rest of the away team repaired the shuttle. Unfortunately the surface vehicle proved to be a deception designed to lead the officers away from the real location of the timeship at Chronowerx. Starling's assistant attacked Paris and Rain with the truck, but fortunately the shuttle arrived in time to destroy his vehicle and rescue Paris.3

Starling launched the Timeship and opened a temporal vortex to the future. With Voyager still crippled, Janeway used a manual over-ride to launch a photon torpedo which destroyed the Aeon just before it entered the rift.3

With the destruction of Earth avoided, the timeline was re-set. A different version of the Aeon emerged from the vortex, manned by a Captain Braxton who had never experienced the events of his predecessor. He agreed to return Voyager to their own time but declined to allow the ship to stay at Earth because it would violate the Temporal Prime Directive.3

Whilst the situation was ultimately resolved successfully, this was one of several events which contributed to Captain Braxton's considerable dislike of Captain Janeway. Indeed, Braxton's dislike would ultimately escalate to the point where he would attempt to murder Janeway by destroying Voyager with a temporal weapon.4